[On Stage] "Beethoven Sonata 13-Hour Performance... Enjoy Pure Art to the Fullest"

Park Chang-su, CEO of The House Concert, to Host 'July Festival' in Daehangno Until the End of This Month
Daily Pure Art Performances Including Classical Music... Final Performance Features Complete Beethoven Sonata Recital

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] 196 participating performers. Complete performances of 9 Beethoven symphonies, 10 violin sonatas, 5 cello sonatas, and 32 piano sonatas.

This is the outline of the 'July Festival' held at the Artist's House in Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, from the 1st to the 31st of last month. Every day, various pure art performances such as classical music, Korean traditional music, jazz, experimental music, and dance are held. The symphonies are presented as four hands performances, with two pianists sitting side by side playing one piano. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the audience is limited to 50 people per performance in a small venue where spectators sit on the wooden floor to enjoy the music. While listening with their ears, the audience can feel the vibrations of the instruments throughout their bodies.

The highlight of the festival is the final performance on the 31st, featuring the complete performance of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Thirty-two pianists perform the 32 pieces in a relay. The performance starts at 11 a.m. and is expected to last about 13 hours. The lineup of performers is impressive. Led by Lee Kyung-sook (76), a distinguished professor at Seoul Cyber University and a doyenne of Korean piano, Beethoven specialists such as Choi Hee-yeon (52), professor at Seoul National University, Aviram Reichert (49), professor at Seoul National University, and Yoon Cheol-hee (52), professor at Kookmin University, as well as promising young pianists Park Jong-hae (30), Moon Ji-young (25), and Lim Joo-hee (20) participate.

Park Chang-su, CEO of The House Concert ?Shin-joong Kim

Park Chang-soo, CEO of The House Concert (56), made this large-scale festival happen with three staff members. Park said, "Gathering performers and preparing the stage is not difficult. Changing people's consciousness is the hard part." He expressed his desire to change the overly superficial structure of people's consciousness. To this end, he hopes that a culture of enjoying pure arts will spread more widely instead of the bloated popular culture.

"I think popular music has become so dominant that it lowers the overall cultural level of our society. When popular culture prevails, people's consciousness inevitably becomes superficial. Popular culture, by its nature, must be consumed quickly by people. I believe the reason people easily get swept away or excited about something is because their consciousness has been simplified by popular culture. If people think more about pure arts, their consciousness will be much higher than it is now."

Park said he does not intend to dichotomize pure arts and popular arts. He said pure arts and popular arts must coexist, but he only warns against the excessive bloating of popular arts.

"I also enjoy popular arts. However, what I worry about is the excessive bloating of popular arts. The popularization of classical music is impossible anyway. The number of people who can enjoy classical music is limited, and many people inevitably enjoy popular music."

Park Chang-soo first held the festival at his home in 2002 and has steadily expanded it. In 2013, he held a one-day festival with simultaneous concerts at 65 venues nationwide, and from 2015, he expanded to the international stage. In 2017, he organized 614 performances in 28 countries worldwide throughout July. He recruited dozens of performers locally and sent many performers from Korea, holding an average of 20 performances per day worldwide. How could a small team of four, including Park, create so many performances?

"Although the guarantees we can offer performers are limited, many performers participate because they sympathize with the festival's purpose. That is our strength. Gathering 32 pianists is not difficult. The important thing is that we only gathered top-level performers. Our pride lies in the trust we have earned from the performers to that extent."

The House Concert 'July Festival' Performance Scene [Photo by The House Concert]

This year, they planned to focus performances in Daehak-ro. Due to COVID-19, overseas performances became difficult. Park explained, "So, we prepared even more intensive performances."

Regarding the choice of Daehak-ro as the performance venue, Park said, "Daehak-ro is the center of Korean culture and arts, but commercial culture is too prevalent."

Preparing Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas as the festival's final performance also carries the meaning of reflecting once more on the significance of art. "Beethoven's life is filled with art. His early, middle, and late musical changes contain his life and philosophy. While symphonies, cello sonatas, and violin sonatas were composed in specific periods, the piano sonatas were composed evenly throughout Beethoven's entire life. Performing all the piano sonatas over 13 hours will be a time to read Beethoven's entire life at once."

Having held the festival for 18 years, Park has incurred deficits ranging from 50 million to 100 million won annually. He has also invested a considerable amount of his own money. As a result, the size of his home has been shrinking. He said he has no commercial mindset at all.

In 2022, The House Concert will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Park said he wants to entrust the festival to someone else in 2022 after The House Concert establishes stable roots and focus on other work that can contribute to the spread of pure arts. He hopes society will change and wants to continue proposing alternatives through art.